Designing my own TARDIS Interior

[ThymeLorde]

Hello, everyone! This is my first diary on here, and hopefully not my last. I'm so glad to finally be able to post this.  

Anyways, we were assigned a project for school. This "Personal Project" as it is referred to isn't really a project in the typical sense. You were allowed to choose your own topic, and not a "choose from x number of options" sort of thing, but choose whatever you want. So, since I'm a huge fan, and I've been browsing this forum for over a year, I finally decided to build a TARDIS. I'd always thought about building a TARDIS to place at the end of my hallway, and connect it to my bedroom, which I planned on renovating to look like the TARDIS console room. After being inspired by doc_disco's wonderful build (http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php/index.php?topic=7701) I decided to start plans on building the exterior.


So far, I have drawn out a very rough and choppy diagram, with some measurements I took of my bedroom and the hallway.



(THIS DRAWING IS NOT TO SCALE.)

Just in case it's not clear, or you can't read my sloppy high school handwriting, I've made a list of measurements so you all can see the space that I am working with.

Hallway
-36" (3') wide
-36" (3') allotted length (my mother's bedroom is nearly adjacent to mine, and I have approximately 3' between the end of the hall and her doorframe.)
-96" (8') tall

Bedroom
-144" (12') wide
-144" (12') long *back wall is 156" (13') long*
-96" (8') tall

Bedroom - Left Wall
-105" (8'9") corner to edge
-12" (1') edge to doorframe
-39" (3'3") edge to back wall

I know the left wall listing seems a bit odd, but my room is a square, with an added 12" of space to accommodate my bedroom door and overhead light switch. I'm not sure why it was designed this way, but it is how it is.

At the moment, I am drawing up plans that are correctly scaled, and am starting to do the math to have a correctly scaled Brachacki Altered TARDIS. (On an aesthetic note, I can't decide between the "Spearhead from Space" look, with the heavy blue-grey weathering, or "The Three Doctors" look, with the bright blue, unweathered paint.) I've found plans for the original Brachacki TARDIS, but I'm not sure of the dimensions of the Altered version's roof. And no, I won't be doing the "warped" dimensions, with the prop being slightly trapezoidal as opposed to square.

I hope to have more soon, and I hope you all look as much forward to this as I do!  

[ThymeLorde]

Ok, small update. While I started drawing up correctly-scaled plans of my hallway, my folder that I carried my papers in fell apart at the spine, and all my papers spilled out. I could never find the paper I was drawing them up on, so I'm assuming they're gone.    But fortunately, I found my TARDIS interior plans. And when I say my, I mean MY design. (you can read about what my ideal TARDIS would look like here) http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=1080.msg97185#msg97185 .

As you can see in my post on the topic above, my TARDIS would be heavily influenced by the ocean liners of the early 20th century, namely the Olympic and Titanic. So far, I have a half-finished plan drawn up. Many things have not been added yet, but I have made a diagram explaining what I have so far, and what I plan to add.

(I would like to add that although I would love to build this as a model, it will have to wait until I get my other build(s) finished. But this is definitely something I want to build, so hopefully it happens at some point!)





Diagram for Plans (Yellow is what is already drawn, orange is what I plan to add/what else would be there)
A. Main doors
B. TARDIS console
C. Main Staircase
D. Steps
E. Upper balcony
F. Sitting Area (wing-back chairs, end table, fireplace in corner)
G. Floor below balcony (computer systems like the Fault Locator will be here, along with bookshelves in the spaces nearer to the Sitting Area)
H. Doorways to rest of the TARDIS
I'd also like to mention the two circles. The smaller one, surrounding the console only, will be the "ledge", similar to what McGann had on the 1996 console, although I am still contemplating whether to make it hexagonal or circular). The other, larger circle is going to be a large dome, where light pours in (I said it took influence from the Titanic, and I meant it )

P. S. I have also put in a photo showing some of my rough sketches trying to decide whether I like the round ledge or not. Sorry about the different lighting, but it was a bit of an afterthought, and also a bit of an accidental discovery (I mentioned above about my folder falling apart; I didn't realize this was in the stack of papers until I searched through all of them.)



Hope this will satisfy you all until I can get those plans drawn up! Until next time!  

[Bob's your Uncle]

I love graph paper! 
It means that those crazy ideas in my head are about to become reality.

Good luck with your project. I can't wait to see more.

Greg.

[ThymeLorde]

Hello, everyone. It's been far too long since I've worked on this, and I'm not quite sure what motivated me to start working again on it, but I'm glad I did, because I'd forgotten how fun it was! I love designing stuff, and a TARDIS console room has always been a goal of mine.

I only started recently, but I have a few more "concept" designs that I've drawn up. They're not perfect... or to scale... or even straight... but, I still think they show what I'm trying to do.



In this drawing, you can see some of the ideas I spoke about last time. My console room is pretty heavily inspired by the Titanic, in particular the Grand Staircase. I'm still going back and forth on whether I want the dome facing upwards, as on the Titanic, or facing downwards, and connecting to the time rotor. In my drawings, I have it down, but I might draw one with the dome up at some point.

The console itself will be similar to the 1996 TV Movie console, with the ledge around the panels. However, the ledge on mine will be circular, while the panels create the traditional hexagonal shape. This gives a sort of "wedge" shape around the console. The panels are separated by a raised section, which continues down to the ledge, and below, where they form the "legs" around the base of the console, behind which lies the continuation of the time rotor.

The rest of the room is pretty heavily inspired from the Titanic's Grand Staircase, with an ornate staircase being present. The room is in a hexagonal shape, although not equilateral, more like a square with two corners cut out. The staircase is on one of the "cut" walls, and the stairs lead up to walkways on the side walls. Underneath these walkways, there are little alcoves, which contain things like bookshelves, a lounge chair, and various oddities that The Doctor has collected over time. Think of the TV Movie's console room, with the chair and gramophone.





(I hope that makes sense to you all. I'm not the best at explaining things )



These two drawings show two different things. The top is a birds eye view of the room, showing the hexagonal shape of the room. The sections that are shaded in signify that they are on the lower floor (apart from the main floor with the console). You can also see the shapes of the console - a hexagon, surrounded by a circular ledge, with a larger dome overhead. The two wedge shapes in the lower right hand part of the room are the doors, which are proper Classic style. There are multiple passageways leading off to different parts of the ship.

The lower drawing shows (well, attempts to show) another view of the console room. I'm not the best with perspective, but it's meant to show the angles of the room. The leftmost walkway is straight on, with the stairs coming up on the 45 degree wall, and the walkway on the right is seen from the side. I'm still deciding exactly how I want things like the banisters to be designed, but I'm thinking wrought iron details inlaid with gold and gems. I'm not entirely sure.

I know that's a lot, but until I can start drawing up definitive plans, it's the only real way I can explain my vision. I hope you all enjoy it so far, and I hope to have more soon for you all!

P.S. - what are some good programs (preferably free - I'm still a student, after all   ) to design things like this in? I'm not looking to make detailed renders or anything, just have the shape planned out.

[Scarfwearer]

P.S. - what are some good programs (preferably free - I'm still a student, after all   ) to design things like this in? I'm not looking to make detailed renders or anything, just have the shape planned out.

I've been doing all my plans using Open Office Draw. Open Office is free and the Draw program seems well suited to measured 2D drawings.

[ThymeLorde]

I've been doing all my plans using Open Office Draw. Open Office is free and the Draw program seems well suited to measured 2D drawings.

Does this program allow for 3D views of the room, or is it purely 2D? I'd love to be able to spin it around and look at it from different angles , to confirm whether the design is good or not.

[Scarfwearer]

Open Office Draw is pretty much 2D only.

Lots of people use Sketchup for 3D work, which I think still has a free version.
But there may be other free tools more suited to CAD work. Anyone?

[questwalnut]

I believe sketchup was recently bought by another company meaning that only the online version is free.

I would personally recommend blender, as it has been my tool of choice for years. However, it is quite a steep learning curve.
Blender would give you lots of options for expanding with materials and several cameras etc. If you are willing to learn it can be quite powerful.

As far as I know, sketchup online does give you the full suite of what used to be available for free download, but that depends on whether you like online software or not.

I hope this was helpful
QW

[flumbledryer]

I use a version of SketchUp which is free called SketchUp Make. I recently installed it on my Dad's laptop so I can have my 3D model to hand when working on my full size box, but it's pretty hard to find on their website, if at all.

Googling "SketchUp Make" leads you straight to it, though.

Hope this was of some use to someone

[galacticprobe]

Nice concept art you've got there! (I may borrow some of the console's plan for my "Identity Crisis" console that I've been having trouble with - never able to get a decent design that works, or that I like.)

And even before I read further in your post, when I saw that drawing the first thought that ran through what's left of my mind was "Looks like someone might have taken some inspiration from Titanic's Grande Staircase with that one!" (To this day, after seeing a recent documentary on Titanic - "Titanic's Final Mystery", I think it was, hosted my James Cameron who made the blockbuster film - I wonder where that Grande Staircase is. In all of the archive footage of the discovery of the wreck, while many wooden features are still in place, the Staircase is missing. No one knew why. Cameron stumbled across a plausibility during the scene in the film where they tilted the full-scale set and opened the water tanks to flood the set. The skylight shattered (just like on the real wreck - which answered the question of how that happened), and as the water poured in and the set flooded, the Grande Staircase - built to the specs of the real one - broke loose and floated up and out of the skylight! So one plausible explanation is that the Staircase is missing because it floated away through the skylight, and ended up who knows where in the Atlantic... until it became waterlogged and sank, or was picked up by some ship not knowing what they'd found.)

But I digress. I can't wait to see you start getting this console room rendered. It should be amazing!

Dino.

[the author]

I use Wings3D for 3D modelling.
Bit rough around the edges, but it's easy touse, and allows precise measurements.
And for pretty renders with lighting and everything, DAZ|Studio is a good option.
On the DAZ homepage, you can also get Hexagon for modelling.
Those programs are all free, but you have to registers on the page to get DS.

[ThymeLorde]

Small update. (No, I haven't forgotten about this!)

I've been busy with school and other things in my personal life, so I haven't had much of a chance to work on designing the interior. Plus, I'm still trying to get the hang of Sketchup. (I feel like I need one of those "... for dummies" books on the topic   )

When I've gotten a chance, I've been working on a few different designs. While I like the previous one I designed, I've come to prefer the "sterile, futuristic" look. I've also been watching a lot of Capaldi's episodes recently, and the multi-layered look is really growing on me. Two of my most recent designs both feature multiple floors.



Here's the first. I'm not sure how clear my thought process is coming through, but my thinking was to have a room with the console and some other pieces of tech (like the Fault Locator) on the ground floor, as well as small alcoves where the Doctor can sit and relax, or have a workbench, or store various bits and bobs he's picked up on his travels over the years. But, I also wanted for it to have upper walkways that go around the entirety of the room, and allow you to cross from one side to the other. On both sides are corridors leading to the rest of the TARDIS. I haven't fleshed this one out as much, but I think that it's got some possibility.

My next one is only a (very) rough sketch:





This one is a bit different, in that the console is on the upper level, rather than the lower. Also here is the scanner, and a cross between the Hartnell-era canopy and a roundel (thanks to Mike Verta for that lovely idea). The balcony that the console is on also features walkways that extend to the Fault Locator (I added these after I took the photo... inspiration always strikes at the worst times   ).

There is a set of stairs leading down to the first floor. (I'm thinking about adding a spiral staircase, but I'm still on the fence about it. Below the console is the "heart", which features sliding panels to access the various bits of circuitry and machinery. A workbench is also down here.

Also on the first floor is one of the alcoves that I previously mentioned. On this design however, the corridor to the rest of the ship is across from the alcove, rather than being in a different location. In the wall above the alcove, a panel revealing more circuitry is accessible.

There's still a lot of things I need to work on for these designs. I also need to get around to learning Sketchup. However, I just wanted to post a small update to show that I'm still working on these projects. I hope you all like my newer designs!

[Volpone]

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like Sketchup is almost as easy to get the hang of as Microsoft Access.